{"id":426645,"date":"2011-05-19T07:17:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/05\/19\/national-audit-office-shines-beyond-borders\/"},"modified":"2011-05-19T07:17:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T07:17:01","slug":"national-audit-office-shines-beyond-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/19\/national-audit-office-shines-beyond-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"National Audit Office Shines Beyond Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tanzania Daily News<\/a> (Dar\u00a0es\u00a0Salaam)<\/p>\n

Masato Msasato<\/p>\n

18 May 2011<\/p>\n

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THE AUDIT reports by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) that majority people, including the auditees themselves, used to snub in the past as mere routine government documents have lately turned into sensitive and highly reputable books in which each public institution is striving to appear positively.<\/p>\n

The National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) that had the reputation of delaying the release of its reports, sometimes by up to three years, has cleansed itself to become one of the most effective and highly efficient supreme audit institutions in the African continent.<\/p>\n

No wonder NAOT scooped the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) 2010 award for the best performance audit report. The winning audit report focused on maternal health care activities in the country.<\/p>\n

“You will agree with me that maternal mortality is a problem that touches most of us… the death of a mother significantly diminishes the chances of survival of the newborn child as well as the other children and husband,” says the CAG, Mr Ludovick Utouh.<\/p>\n

The African Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution for English Countries (AFROSAI-E) and SNAO launched the award in 2008 to promote performance audit, which centres on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which the audited entities use resources in executing their responsibilities.<\/p>\n

NAOT didn’t participate in the first year of the award that envisages promoting experience sharing and benchmarking best practices in performance audit as well as highlighting the efforts made by performance auditors within the region because of unqualified reports.<\/p>\n

One of the conditions for the award entries is that the submitted reports must have been started and completed within one year. But, according to Mr Utouh, “By then, we had only one performance audit that had taken more than one year to complete and therefore it couldn’t qualify.”<\/p>\n

Even though NAOT participated in 2009, submitting the performance audit on “Processing of terminal benefits of retirees from the central and local government of Tanzania,” the entry could hardly sail through. “But, we didn’t give up – we decided to participate again in 2010,” says the CAG.<\/p>\n

The office came up with a topical and value adding subject of maternal health that touches most of the citizens. A three-person audit team executed the assignment exemplarily to win the award. Those behind the audit assignment were George Haule, Warento Nyanchogu and Wendy Massoy and they have all been offered a one-week fully funded study tour in Stockholm, Sweden.<\/p>\n

Even though seven entries were submitted for the 2010 SNAO award, only six audit reports passed the formal assessment by the AFROSAI-E Secretariat. According to the reviewers’ report, the competition among the six reports was strong, with two best reports competing closely, compelling the reviewers to declare two winning reports – from Tanzania and Botswana.<\/p>\n

NAOT has indeed come a long way to win such prestigious awards and credits go to President Jakaya Kikwete who upon assuming the country’s highest office early in 2006 gave the audit office a new impetus.<\/p>\n

Not only did the president appoint Mr Utouh to head the office but also demonstrated his personal support to the work of the CAG. Mr Kikwete convened the first ever meeting in Dodoma in 2007 to deliberate on the findings of the first audit report under his reign.<\/p>\n

During the meeting that centred on the CAG findings on how taxpayers’ money was being used, the president declared zero tolerance on embezzlers of public resources, ordering that the culprits be treated as outright thieves.<\/p>\n

It was from the president’s vow to support the NAOT that the audit of public organisations became a serious business, with the office managing to issue its reports timely for five consecutive years. The law demands that audit reports covering the financial year ending June 30 be ready for presentation to the president by March 31 of the next year.<\/p>\n

The audit office has also over the years extended the scope of its audits to cover performance\/or value for money audit that goes beyond the physical verifications of money being spent according to the accounting books.<\/p>\n

Performance audit seeks to improve programmes and operations, save taxpayers’ money, provide better services to the public and obtain best value for money. Value for money audit strives to go deeply, exploring the causes of poor and questionable investments to enable auditors come up with in-depth analysis and recommendations.<\/p>\n

Mr Utouh, besides paying special tributes to President Kikwete whom he says has since 2007 paid keen interest on the CAG reports, attributes the success of his office to “Leadership, determination and cooperation.”<\/p>\n

He says the first thing he did when he assumed office in 2006 was to form a highly motivated and competent team to accomplish the tough office responsibilities.<\/p>\n

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See the article here:
\nNational Audit Office Shines Beyond Borders<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tanzania Daily News (Dar\u00a0es\u00a0Salaam) Masato Msasato 18 May 2011 THE AUDIT reports by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) that majority people, including the auditees themselves, used to snub in the past as mere routine government documents have lately turned into sensitive and highly reputable books in which each public institution is striving to appear positively. The National Audit Office of Tanzania (NAOT) that had the reputation of delaying the release of its reports, sometimes by up to three years, has cleansed itself to become one of the most effective and highly efficient supreme audit institutions in the African continent. No wonder NAOT scooped the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) 2010 award for the best performance audit report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-426645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"yoast_head":"\nNational Audit Office Shines Beyond Borders - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/05\/19\/national-audit-office-shines-beyond-borders\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"National Audit Office Shines Beyond Borders - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Tanzania Daily News (Dar\u00a0es\u00a0Salaam) Masato Msasato 18 May 2011 THE AUDIT reports by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) that majority people, including the auditees themselves, used to snub in the past as mere routine government documents have lately turned into sensitive and highly reputable books in which each public institution is striving to appear positively. 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